The Message (风声) (2009 film)

The Message (风声) is a 2009 Chinese spy thriller film co-directed by Gao Qunshu (高群书) and Chen Kuo-fu (陈国富), adapted from Mai Jia's (麦家) 2007 novel of the same name, in which five suspects in the Japanese-backed Wang Jingwei puppet government are confined in a walled estate while an interrogator tries to identify the underground agent code-named "Old Ghost" (老鬼).^{1 • 2} It was released in mainland China on 29 September 2009, earned about 250 million yuan, and is widely treated as a benchmark of the Chinese-language spy thriller genre.^{1 • 2}

From novel to film

Mai Jia's novel was published in 2007 and printed in full by People's Literature; Mai has said the magazine's full-text special edition was a first in its 60-year history.⁴ After publication, roughly fifty film and television companies inquired about the adaptation rights, including China Film, Shanghai Film, and Jiang Wen's company. Jiang Wen asked Mai to wait half a month for his return from the United States, but the talks failed, and Mai has linked the collapse to the poor performance of The Sun Also Rises.^{10 • 4} Huayi Brothers, led by Wang Zhongjun with Wang Zhonglei negotiating, bought the film, television, and game rights as a package at a price Mai said exceeded his expectations.¹⁰

Feng Xiaogang's role. Mai has said Feng Xiaogang liked the novel and that it was Feng who asked Huayi to buy the rights; Feng withdrew because If You Are the One and Tangshan Earthquake occupied his schedule, but he served as an active, not honorary, producer on the film.¹¹ Chen Kuo-fu, initially considered for the director's chair, found Gao Qunshu during pre-production after seeing Gao's film One Man's Job and television work, and the two co-directed.³

The adaptation. Chen Kuo-fu wrote the screenplay, keeping the mole's identity hidden until the end; he cut the novel's "Old Ghost diary" passages because a character speaking aloud would give the answer away. Mai Jia said the film uses only about a fifth of the novel's plot, which he estimated would run 40 hours if filmed in full, and that the novel's three-part structure, in which the Communist, Nationalist, and "authorial" accounts of the same events contradict one another, could not be carried into a two-hour film.^{3 • 10 • 4} Mai judged the adaptation successful on its own terms, while criticizing the film's message-transmission device as logically loose and noting that killing off two characters at once felt rushed.¹⁰

Production and secrecy

The production treated the two central secrets, Old Ghost's identity and the method of passing the message, as genuine secrets. The directors did not tell the cast who Old Ghost was; actors including Zhou Xun and Zhang Hanyu learned the answer only when they came in for dubbing. The producers signed confidentiality agreements with several actors carrying a penalty of 100,000 yuan, keeping the mystery intact until release.³

Mai Jia explained the casting logic that followed from the mystery structure: because any star known to be the lead would be guessed as Old Ghost, the eight principal roles had to be balanced with actors of comparable stature, which raised costs; set construction alone, he was told, cost more than 4 million yuan.⁴ Huang Xiaoming, cast against type as the Japanese officer Takeda, learned Japanese lines with a full-time tutor and designed the character's mannerisms himself; director Gao Qunshu joked on the first day of shooting that his Japanese was better than his Mandarin.²

Reception and box office

The film opened on 29 September 2009 for the National Day holiday, positioned as Huayi's flagship release in a year without a Feng Xiaogang film, and was marketed as "China's first spy blockbuster."^{3 • 12} It earned 150 million yuan in its first eight days and finished at more than 250 million yuan.^{13 • 2} A sample of 30 readers of The Beijing News gave it 84.7 out of 100, the highest score the paper had recorded for a Chinese film since the summer season, with only 3 of 30 rating it below 80.⁷ Sina's film-rating panel averaged 86.2 from 1,210 members as of 19 October 2009.¹⁴

At the 46th Golden Horse Awards, Li Bingbing won Best Actress, and the film received nominations including Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Art Direction, Best Makeup and Costume Design, and Best Visual Effects.^{6 • 5} The film also drew criticism from some viewers and reviewers, who argued the mystery was revealed too early and found plot logic strained.^{15 • 16}

Legacy

The film was re-released in mainland China on 20 July 2020 as cinemas reopened after the COVID-19 shutdown.^{1 • 17} Commentators reviewing the re-release described it as the most complete demonstration of genre discipline among Chinese spy films, with no off-tone star close-ups and a narrative that holds the audience on the single question of Old Ghost's identity from start to finish.¹⁷

The spy films that followed it in the early 2010s, including Autumn Love, East Wind, Rain, and The Silent War, underperformed it at the box office and in reputation, and the genre went quiet until Zhang Yimou's Cliff Walkers (2021) revived comparisons; director Gao Qunshu himself said at that film's premiere, "After The Message, there are still legends."¹² A television series adaptation of the novel, in development since the film's release, premiered in 2020.^{10 • 2}

References

1. 风声（2009年高群书、陈国富执导电影）, Baidu Baike
2. 小说《风声》13年后推新版，作家麦家和演员黄晓明都有感悟, 澎湃新闻 (2020)
3. 《风声》：谍战传奇的绝地反击, 新世纪周刊 via 新浪网 (2009)
4. 麦家谈《风声》：观众希望看到英雄 红了谍战戏, 信息时报 via 新浪网 (2009)
5. 电影《风声》的创新探析, 名作欣赏 (2012)
6. 风声 (豆瓣)
7. 《风声》透剧情是万恶之源 观众不满找茬嫌没劲, 新京报 via 中新网 (2009)
8. 《风声》：谍战剧本杀，封闭空间的解密局, 豆瓣影评 (2009)
9. 即使是张艺谋出手 谍战片仍不及谍战剧, 中新网 (2021)
10. 对话麦家：中国作家在影视面前从来是弱者, 文汇报 via 中新网 (2009)
11. 《风声》原著作者麦家：靠地图写遍大江南北, 新浪网 (2009)
12. 《风声》之后，《悬崖之上》接住谍战片这一棒了吗？, 界面新闻 (2021)
13. 中国电影产业化环境下主流意识形态表达的思考 (2010)
14. 新浪影视点评团第五次为《风声》打分86.2, 新浪网 (2009)
15. 关于《风声》，不吐不快, 豆瓣影评 (2009)
16. 于无声处听惊雷，豪杰多在寂寥中, 豆瓣影评 (2009)
17. 《风声》再起，复盘它的类型经验, 中国电影家协会 (2020)

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026

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